DATA REVEALS THE EXTERIOR TRENDS YOU NEED FOR 2021

Dulux Weathershield reveals the outdoor trends taking the UK by storm so far in 2021 and those that are here to stay

• Outdoor wood paint takes top spot as most searched for exterior trend product in the UK, with 12,100 searches per month in 2021
• Grey paint proves to be the most popular exterior paint shade, seeing almost 100% more searches per month than second choice, white paint (7,130 vs 3,570 per month)
• White paint is the biggest exterior colour trend on Instagram though, featuring in 45% of the top interior hashtags studied
• Garden decking searches predicted to increase by 437% on last year

After a year that saw much of the UK living and working at home, it’s no surprise that interior updates and home DIY were some of the nation’s biggest past times in 2020. A year on, as we head into the warmer months and with home visits with friends and family back in full swing, it’s time to start paying attention to the outside of the home.

To help consumers on their way to homes with better curb appeal than ever before, Dulux Weathershield has released its first ever Great British Exterior Trends Report, packed full of insights on the outdoor trends that are taking the UK by storm, both in online searches and on social media.

Exterior paint

Refreshing the outside of your home can increase the value of the property and is a simple way to add curb appeal to your exterior. The search results from the last five years reveal that “house exterior”, which includes the walls, the roof, and any developments to the property (such as a conservatory), is on many homeowner’s agenda in the UK, with more than 71,000 Google searches each month.

Looking closer at the exterior paint types gaining the most attention, “outdoor wood paint” takes the top spot with more than 12,000 Google searches per month, followed by “brick paint”, “uPVC door paint”, and “grey decking paint”, each with 8,100 searches per month. Rounding out the top five for exterior paint types are “white masonry paint” and “black wood paint”, both terms gaining 6,600 searches every month.

Paint colours

As for the colours we are choosing to paint our home exteriors, the overwhelming colour choice across the UK is grey paint (7,130 searches per month). Searches for this paint colour doubled that of the next favourite, white paint (3,570,) and was also crowned the most popular in every region in the UK too. Whether the region is coastal or largely urban, densely populated, or rural in nature, choosing grey paint for the exterior of the home has united the country.

In contrast, on Instagram the most popular house colour is pink with the hashtag #pinkhouse currently showing 279,269 images, whereas #greyhouse only shows 69,089. While a pink house might not be as practical or timeless as grey, it certainly does give it an “Instagrammable” feel to a home.

Marco Helliwell, Founder and CEO of mypropertyadvice.com, the UK’s only 1-2-1 property advice service suggests influencers have a part to play here: “The pink house trend is focused primarily on Instagram. I think using these houses as backgrounds is the reason why there is such a high volume of the pink houses on image based social media platforms”.

Across the UK, the only regions where pink exterior paint featured as a top five paint colour amongst all those searched was in the South East (8% searched for this), Yorkshire and the Humber (8%), and the South West (6%).

Instagram trends

When it comes to visual appeal, Instagram is a treasure trove of inspiration. When diving into the hashtag data around exterior design, some similarities to the search intel gathered were revealed, as were several differing trends.

The top exterior trends according to Instagram hashtags:

From window trims to door wreaths, these trends prove an appreciation for the finer details. Yet, it’s crisp and classic all-white exteriors that are the most liked on Instagram, a colour that suits a variety of property types and is always visually impressive.

Future predictions

To help consumers understand which trends are not just for 2021, Dulux Weathershield analysed search data over the last few years to uncover which of these trends have been on the rise and are here to stay. The data revealed that the colourful exterior wall trend has grown the most, from 33,140 monthly searches in 2018 to a whopping 92,900 searches in 2020, and already almost 70,000 searches alone this year – the predicted increase for 2021 is a further 5% growth on last year.

Garden decking is the second biggest growing trend, with searches for this trend exploding in 2021. In 2020 this trend saw around 20,000 searches per month, with expected searches in 2021 set to increase by 437%, if current searches are anything to go by (by April 2021 this term was Googled more than 14,000 times).

The third biggest trend is front doors, which have seen a 61% rise in searches on last year. Carla Valois Lobo of Instagram account @brockleydoors attributes this to people spending time closer to home more than ever, and homeowners wanting to make their properties stand out, saying: “people had nothing better to do this year than just walk around their own neighbourhoods. I started the account for that reason, and because I’d noticed so many beautiful doors and houses in my own area that I’d never noticed before. I now am part of a community of people who actively seek out colourful doors on their daily walks!”

In response to the trends around exterior paint colour, Marianne Shillingford, Creative Director at Dulux says: “The colour you paint the outside of your house probably says more about you than the clothes you wear and the car you drive so it’s important to choose a palette that you and your neighbours will love for years to come. Colours that work with the building materials and the surrounding landscape are probably the most popular for painted masonry, eaves and window frames but when it comes to front doors and gates, we tend to throw caution to the wind and add a good slug of something that makes us happy and will attract big smiles and admiring glances from passers-by.”

For the full analysis, visit The Great British Exterior Trend Report on site now.

For more information, or for further comments from Marianne, Marco, or Carla, please contact Erica.Vonderwall@dentsu.com